LEXINGTON, Ky. — In the aftermath of Kentucky's NCAA Tournament comeuppance at the hands of No. 15 seed Saint Peter's last week, John Calipari's offensive system has been roasted like a Sunday chicken.
It's been open season on Calipari's continued use of two bigs, his deployment of a non-pure-shooting point guard and his team's (lack of) overall spacing.
Underneath video of Kentucky guard TyTy Washington driving into the lane only to find two UK post players and four Saint Peter's defenders already occupying the space, ESPN.com NBA draft analyst Jonathan Givony tweeted, "Almost no one (successful) plays this style of cramped offense anymore, anywhere in the world."
But in the rush to condemn Calipari for allegedly having "let the game pass him by" on the offensive end, something vital is being missed.
UK's 85-79 overtime loss to the plucky Peacocks was not primarily about the Wildcats offense (well, other than the 12 missed free throws the Cats clanked).
The 71 points Kentucky had on the scoreboard at the end of regulation should have been more than enough to beat Saint Peter's — which entered the NCAA Tournament ranked No. 260 in the country in adjusted offensive efficiency in the Pomeroy ratings.
What lost the game for Kentucky was its defense.
In March Madness, UK made what had been, over most of the season, an offensively challenged Saint Peter's team look like 2018 Villanova.
Coach Shaheen Holloway's well-prepared Peacocks made 50.9% of their shots (29 of 57) and 52.9% of their 3-point attempts (9 of 17).
It was only the third out of 14 NCAA Tournament games that Kentucky has played during the Calipari era against teams from outside the seven major basketball conferences (the football Power Five plus the Big East and American Athletic Conference) in which UK allowed such an opponent to shoot over 40%.
That was a fairly astounding showing for a Saint Peter's team that had failed to score 70 points in 18 of the 30 games it had played entering the NCAA tourney.
Kentucky's defensive woes vs. Saint Peter's were the culmination of a late-season trend.
On Feb. 6, after UK limited Alabama to 3-of-30 3-point shooting in a 66-55 road victory in Tuscaloosa, Kentucky stood No. 11 in Division I men's college hoops in kenpom.com's adjusted defensive efficiency.
By March 1, the Wildcats had fallen to No. 20 in adjusted defensive efficiency. Entering the NCAA Tournament, that number had dropped to No. 25 for Kentucky.
After the Saint Peter's defeat, it now stands at No. 35.
In Indianapolis, unheralded Saint Peter's guards Daryl Banks III and Doug Edert torched the Cats.
Banks, who entered the NCAA tourney averaging 11 points a game, hung 27 on Kentucky. Edert, who was scoring at a 9.3 ppg clip coming into the NCAAs, dropped 20 on UK.
That, too, was a continuation of a late-season, Kentucky defensive tendency. Over UK's final nine games, the Wildcats surrendered in excess of 20 points to seven different guards.
Alabama's Keon Ellis went for 28 and LSU's Xavier Pinson 26 in Rupp Arena. JD Notae of Arkansas dropped 30 on the Cats in Fayetteville. Matthew Murrell of Mississippi had 25 in Lexington. Vanderbilt's Jordan Wright rifled in 27 on the Cats in the SEC tournament quarterfinals.
Then came the outbursts from Banks and the now-famously-mustachioed Edert.
In the Calipari era, what had always protected Kentucky from the kind of upset it suffered to Saint Peter's was UK's penchant for fielding rosters stocked with defensive length and athleticism.
That combination consistently allowed Cal's Cats to suffocate opponents from down the college basketball "conference food chain."
Moving forward, Calipari may face a vexing dilemma.
If — as so much of the Big Blue Nation seems to desire — the coach attempts to "modernize" and transform the Kentucky offense to one that plays four out on the perimeter and features outside shooting capacity spread around the court then that would require recruiting players of a particular skill set.
However, a plan to recapture the defensive length and ferocity that typified Calipari's teams when UK was going to four Final Fours between 2011 and 2015 may require attracting recruits with a very different type of ability.
So is it feasible for UK to rebuild its defensive prowess at the same time it "modernizes" its offensive approach?
Realistically, if Kentucky can only do one, is it better for Calipari to force himself into a systematic offensive change with which he may not be entirely comfortable?
Or would it be preferable for the coach to try to return to building the kind of defensive-oriented teams — with rangy 6-foot-6, 6-7 wings like DeAndre Liggins and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and shot-blocking rim protectors like Anthony Davis and Willie Cauley-Stein — with which he had his greatest success at Kentucky?
In what shapes up as an unusually consequential offseason for Calipari, there is a massive amount riding for Kentucky on the coach finding the right balance.
